My father liked them separate, one thereone here (allá y aquí), as if aware that words might cut in two his daughter's heart(el corazón) and lock the alien part to what he was--his memory, his name(su nombre)--with a key he could not claim. "English outside this door, Spanish inside," he said, "y basta." But who can divide the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from any child? I knew how to be dumb and stubborn (testaruda); late, in bed, I hoarded secret syllables I read until my tongue (mi lengua) learned to run where his stumbled. And still the heart was one. I like to think he knew that, even when,proud (orgulloso) of his daugher's pen, he stood outside mis versos, half in fearof words he loved but wanted not to hear.
Bilingual/Bilingüe
My father liked them separate, one thereone here (allá y aquí), as if aware
that words might cut in two
his daughter's heart(el corazón) and lock the alien part
to what he was--his memory, his name(su nombre)--with a key he could not claim.
"English outside this door, Spanish inside,"
he said, "y basta." But who can divide
the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from
any child? I knew how to be dumb
and stubborn (testaruda); late, in bed,
I hoarded secret syllables I read
until my tongue (mi lengua) learned to run where his stumbled. And still the heart was one.
I like to think he knew that, even when,proud (orgulloso) of his daugher's pen,
he stood outside mis versos, half in fearof words he loved but wanted not to hear.